


Flat Hopes

by orphan_account



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Billford - Freeform, Implied past one sided billford, Liam Cipher, My first try at a multi chaptered story that I won't impulse delete, he's a jerk, if you wanna squint hard I guess, is it a dream? Who knows?, poor Bill, the author is only mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 00:33:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10673991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Bill is hit with a fever, and meets an unexpected person during his feverish sleep.Based on both Flat Dreams and Little Dipper. Both fics are great, and I recommend you read them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ZoneRobotnik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZoneRobotnik/gifts).



> I was just wondering.... How would Liam feel about Bill now? Given that he hasn't exactly seen him power hungry in this au.... I thought he'd be less critical. The rest is spoilers ;)
> 
> I took some liberty with the grandpa Shermie thing it just kinda fit.

Mabel removed the thermometer from Bill's mouth, tapping her foot. "Looks like you're running a fever," She said.

The man just groaned and hid his face in his pillow, wishing she'd maybe go away. He wasn't sick. He wasn't. Bill just needed to be alone.

"I didn't know you could get sick!" Dipper added. 

Bill coughed hoarsly. "I can't get sick... I'm just..." 

Mabel softly patted him on the back, frowning thoughtfully. "I'm getting you cough medicine and stuff from the store." She looked to her younger brother. "Think you can look after Bill for a bit, Dip dot?" 

Face stoic, he nodded eagerly. Like he was just given an adult duty, which he kinda was, not that his twelve year old sis knew any better herself.

Satisfied with Dipper's response, Mabel left the demon's room. 

Bill stayed awake for a good ten minutes, dozing in and out of thoughts and sometimes not taking notice to Dipper trying to grab his attention, telling him how blue eyed he is. The demon mumbled, as though he was maybe talking to someone, or just himself. 

Dipper sighed and just resigned to holding his friend's hand, he hoped beyond anything that Bill wouldn't get worse like his grandpa Shermie. 

Eventually Bill's eye became too heavy for him, and he fell asleep. 

\-------------

"Liam... Please don't make me go!" The young equalateral cried out.

The older, irregular boy beside him sighed. Like this was becoming a nightly occurrence for him and his brother. 

"Billy, you know you'll see me again in the morning. You have to leave now before we're caught," Liam said, trying to console him.

So it was one of those dreams.

But the odd thing was, Bill, as he was now, was watching this occur. He wasn't a part of this right now. He was just watching, a spectator.

Young Bill persisted with trying to get an excuse to stay by his brother's side. Liam will get locked up maybe, and then who will tell him stories? Liam could die, he could simply disappear. And Bill would miss him so much and he'd- he'd...  It would be the end of the world for him. 

The rules were unfair, the order of things was wrong, just wrong. Nature was cruel, and even crueler was the law. Deep inside he knew that maybe his brother's death was an excuse for the horrible actions of his past, but there was no excuse in the multiverse for what happened to his brother. None. 

"Bill, I may never forgive you for what you did, nor will I ever understand it, but who you are now." Liam said, holding young Bill in a loose hug. "Is someone a little more responsible."

And suddenly that wasn't young Bill being held by his older brother, it was him now, a near human being. The Liam wasn't the brother of his childhood either. It was the brother who he could have been had he lived.

"You're not real." Bill smiled bitterly.

"Well you're not as I remember you, so we're even I think," Liam said.

The older man looked him straight in the eye, seeming overwhelmed at the brightness of it in contrast to his own grey scale tone.

"Your eye, is that the color brown?" He asked.

Bill stared blankly for a moment before breaking. 

"You die, leaving your brother behind to destroy our home dimension, go to prison, and go on to attempt the destruction of another world, and your first question is about my colors? You absolute nerd!" Bill shook with pained laughter. 

"But, yes, you're right. They might be brown right now," He told the older, declining to explain that his may change.

"You've really gone off the deep end, still my silly brother though," Liam said. "Maybe you should tell me more about that prison and new dimension." 

"Uhh... Weeell, basically after escaping our dimension I got caught by stupid Time baby." Bill spat the name out like some kind of toxic word. "He put me in prison with other... Misfits." 

"Criminals, you mean." 

Bill's face turned red in embarrassment at the correction. Yes, he was technically a criminal, did he want his brother calling him that? No.

"The new dimension... I came there intending to... Do what I did to the last, I tried getting a guy to let me in.. But the original plan just wouldn't hold," He frowned. 

"Your eye is blue... What does that mean?" Liam asked. 

Bill ignored him, continuing. " But when he figured what my intentions once were and what I was... He broke off our deal, and sealed me up! Like our time spent together meant nothing to him, like he hadn't ever..." 

He sighed. "Why am I talking to you, you aren't real. I'm just going to hurt more when I wake up. " 

Liam held his brother closer, like they actually were younger again. As though he were still alive and with his kid brother. Nothing has happened. He hadn't died, and Bill didn't set his mind to destroying the system that took Liam from him.

"Bill, I know nothing will ever be the same again, and I know you hurt. I can try to be supportive, and I can watch you, but I can't take the past away," He said. "You might have cared for the wrong man, but his family is accepting you with open arms. I know what you did with mom and dad was out of anger, you hated them after I was gone, didn't you? Please don't push these people away, they're helping you change."

"I..." Bill felt everything was fading away. No, please.

"I love you, Bill. Goodbye." 

\-------------

When Mabel came back with medicine, Bill had taken it without a complaint. He ruffled Dipper's hair and reassured him that he would be okay, he'd never leave him if he could help it.


	2. I Love You as Many Sides as a Sphere has

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam pays his brother another visit, they talk some, and talk about the things they missed out on together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I accidentally added more... Whoops. I'm actually losing sleep over my closure writing. Fantastic. Please help me.
> 
> Vaguely plotless family fluff/angst.
> 
> I don't like writing angst,,, it's just fluff amongst an angsty situation.

Bill's fever had broken a week ago, apparently he must have gotten the fever from the kids around the shack. Made sense at least, he wished they would wash themselves. He could account for Dipper being the pseudo babysitter he was, but he couldn't (or wouldn't) be the one to baby these children. Pine tree and his sister were enough, really.

But the fever wasn't what was on his mind right now. No, it was the fact that whenever he went to sleep, he dreamt of his brother. Not the sweet dreams where he still had Liam, but rather dreams where Liam was in them. In them, as in, the dreams were happening, and Liam decides to crash the party. 

It's not Liam, it can't be. He tells himself. He was just losing grasp on the mindscape because of time spent here, that's it. No matter how much he wanted to believe his brother were there, he couldn't trick himself into thinking that. He could lie to himself until he thought it the truth, but it wouldn't fix that his older brother was gone.

Bill slowly fell asleep once more, wondering what "Liam" would want to talk about tonight.

\-------------

The dream demon found his brother there to greet him, as per usual. Bill looked around. This time they were in Liam's bedroom, everything was as it was before Liam left. No dust, no missing books, desk was nice and tidy. Almost like he didn't know it any other way... It sent a shiver down Bill's spine.

"Are you going to tell me a story--" Bill plopped onto his brother's lap despite his now much larger size. " I promise I'll ask questions at all the right times!" 

The other man seemed unamused at his brother's antics, not saying anything about it either. He was used to this by now. "Actually, I was hoping you would tell me a story." 

Bill moved off his brother and decided to comfortable on his bed, spreading all limbs out. "What about?" He asked. 

"Well I do recall asking you to tell me more about the Pines kids, you seem awful fond of them." Liam's eye was filled to the brim with something he could not identify as a single feeling. Maybe just a weird older sibling thing.

"Well their names are Mabel and Dipper. " A grin slips on Bill's face without him knowing it. "Mabel is twelve and Dipper is seven, they were born on the same day but different years. Mabel loves arts and crafts, cooking, and these things called boy bands."

Liam blinks. "Boy bands?"

His little brother chuckles. "They're ridiculous, really. Boy bands are groups of young musicians who often sing poorly written love songs. Really popular with young girls in this dimension."

"Young girls like Mabel?" Liam asked.

Bill laughs. "Yes, young girls like Shooting star," he said.

"..... The third dimension is interesting? What's Dipper like?" 

The younger idly kicks his feet. "He's small, but very energetic. He likes getting dressed up and singing. He can be a little too curious sometimes, but nothing we can't handle," Bill looks up at his brother. "I think he would like you." 

This time Liam laughs. "This Dipper sounds a lot like a younger you, Bill." He said. "You were like that once." 

Bill frowns at this, now laying on his side, facing the opposite direction to the other. He sighed, looking at the farthest corner of Liam's room, committing every bit of the wall to his memory. 

"Liam... Say you really are here, and that somehow you're in my mind despite being all kinds of dead back in the second dimension... And you knew about the kids, and my criminal record... And everything else I've done..." _Destroy our home._ The words were there but neither spoke it. "How? And why?"

Liam didn't speak for a moment, he didn't move; Liam was collecting up his thoughts, how did he answer this question?

"I've done something similar to you--" he realized he should keep quiet about the details for now. " I came here because..." He turned now, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "I missed out on everything. The last I had seen of you was a child. I didn't get to see any different, I wasn't there to help you," he said.

Liam's grip on Bill tightened. "I didn't even get to say goodbye."

Bill turned around a bit, seeing his brother shaking. Was Liam crying? Never in all these years had Bill seen his older brother cry, not once. He was the stronger one, no matter how many dimensions Bill could demolish, no matter how any rules he had broke, Liam always seemed to be the tougher one. The younger brother had admired him so much for that, and looked up to him. And now, trillions of years later, Liam was crying because he couldn't say goodbye so many years ago. Maybe he was crying now because his younger sibling was no longer a kid?

He grabs his brother in a tight hug, feeling awkward because of the shape and size difference. It was like a kid holding a teddy bear.

"Hey Liam," Bill says. The irregularly shaped triangle looks up, meeting Bill's now blue eye- eyes he notes to himself distantly. His brother had two eyes right now.

"What?"

"Now we can say as many goodbyes as we'd like." Liam sniffled at this. 

The two sit there in this position for a few minutes before Bill lets go. The older had wiped his tears now, and it was as though that hadn't happened. Which didn't matter anyways, his brother could cry once or twice or as many times as he needed to, but Liam was done for tonight.

Grabbing a book from that perfect replica of his shelf, Liam opens it up. "It's been a long time since I've read this one to you." 

The title reads: **I Love You as Many Sides a Sphere Has**

Bill doesnt say anything, it was childish, but they could still enjoy this after so so long. Even if he grew out of this before the first human walked on Earth. They had so much lost time to make up for, a book was a good start. Though... He had outgrown that particular book at age six if he could recall right.

".... You're not actually going to read that to me, are you?"

Liam loses his stoic expression and laughs, putting the child's book down. "Would you like to finally read that special book with me?"

"I'd love to!"

They would discuss it all the way into the morning when Bill needed to wake up.


End file.
